Steve Paikin: A father’s dilemma

Steve Paikin, the host of The Agenda, is asking for advice—his son is seeking a Liberal nomination in the 2015 federal election. Given this conflict of interest, Paikin asks how he should approach his election reporting. By Steve Paikin, host of The Agenda After he retired as the Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the Miami Dolphins, Bob…

Steve Paikin, the host of The Agenda, is asking for advice—his son is seeking a Liberal nomination in the 2015 federal election. Given this conflict of interest, Paikin asks how he should approach his election reporting.

By Steve Paikin, host of The Agenda

After he retired as the Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the Miami Dolphins, Bob Griese became a TV colour commentator, broadcasting US college football games.

In one game he had to work, the starting quarterback for one of the teams was his son.

Griese had a problem. He was supposed to be a balanced commentator. But could he ever been seen as such, when his son was on the field?

Candidly, I'm facing a similar issue these days. My oldest son Zach has announced that he wants to seek a Liberal nomination for the next federal election in 2015.

Ever since my kids were toddlers, I've dragged them to political events so they can see "democracy in action." I've never cared whether they got involved in politics, but I did want them to understand it and be engaged citizens.

As it happens, three of them have gotten involved. Zach, 22, joined the Liberals when he was 14. Henry, 20, has told NDP MP Olivia Chow that once he returns from outside the province where he's currently attending university, he'll work on her mayoralty campaign. Teddy, now 16, worked on PC MPP Christine Elliott's leadership bid against Tim Hudak in 2009—he even sold about 25 memberships for the cause.

My 10-year-old Giulia is still, I think, too young to participate. But she knows the names of all the federal and provincial leaders (the Greens too), and I like that.

I'm proud of all my kids, all the time, but I confess I'm pleased that they've all taken an interest in politics.

But things are now more complicated. Zach's running for federal office puts him in a higher profile position than my kids' previous occasional volunteer involvement. It also means when I cover Liberal Party of Canada political conventions for TVO, as I did in Montreal this past weekend, I deal with "The Zach Issue" a lot. People constantly talk to me about him, which as his father delights me, but as a journalist trying to do his job, occasionally puts me in a tricky spot.

To continue reading this column, please go to The Agenda with Steve Paikin, where this was originally published.

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Tamara Baluja

Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.